of thing my dad would have reminded me about. He did not want the government to have his money before it was absolutely necessary. My estimated payments are not very big so the sacrificed interest won't be a major sacrifice.
Come to think of it, I haven't taken itemized deductions--other than charitable--for decades. When I was a young writer just starting out I had so many deductions for office supplies, postage and mailing, Xerox, etc... and I remember even the purchases of some books and travel were deductible as research (and I didn't cheat 
). Oh, and part of my apartment was "office space." There were some deductions I would have been embarrassed to take but was entitled to, like "depreciation."
Years ago, though, I remember reading (I don't know if this is still true) that too many itemized deductions or certain types of deductions were considered a "red flag" that could get you audited. I was a piss-poor writer at the time and my deductions often were larger than the amount of money I made writing in those early days. I almost always got refunds. I was writing my ass off but spending more than I was earning just on writing alone.
Bizarre as it sounds, I think of those as really good times. Scary but fun. When you don't have anything, you also don't have anything to lose.
Edit history
Recommendations
0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):
= new reply since forum marked as read